In 1066 the French invaded England, moved in and took over
ruling the country. Ralph de Gael was a child of one of those families. In
England the Breton barony of Gaël is not one place but the
40 parishes that he inherited as a grant from the Crown. “He held large estates
in Norfolk, as well as property in Suffolk, Essex, Hertford, and possibly other
counties.” – Wikipedia.

This man had an extraordinary
life as a witness to and participant in important historical events. If you
follow the links on this article about him in Wikipedia you will see – The Battle
of Hastings; Riding with Conan II; Being with William the Conqueror; Going on
the first Crusade; Fighting Vikings.

The Wiki article states that
both he and his wife died on the route to Palestine on the Crusade.The ancestry.com page for him says
Cambridgeshire, England – which is probably where their monuments were placed.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

F is for . . . FécampA note to my family: This works
out rather neatly. Our ancestor from Fécamp leads
to my mother. Our ancestor from Fyndern leads to my father.One is royal the other comes from a line of
knights and ladies and then Quakers.One is from France and the beaches of Normandy, and the other from a tiny place in
Derbyshire, England.Click on the links
for more detail.Don’t be dismayed by different spellings
– they abound and are further confused by the use of Latin. Until the majority
of people could read spelling remained very fluid

Once again, this is a blog of mostly links like the one
immediately below that has photos, maps, and a fascinating history on the
origin of Fécamp. Be sure to
follow the links.

George Fyndern1470-1540 is my 16th great
grandfather.This family comes down through
our Quaker lines to my father’s family.Findern/Fyndern is a small
village that grew up around the Fyndern manor house.

The village of Fyndern and our
Fyndern family have an interesting history. See what’s up in the following
link. The Findern Flower was brought back to the village in England from the Crusades.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our visit
to a couple of small villages in France and England. The lands of our
forefathers.A challenge to my blog
readers – look-up an area your ancestors hailed from and learn its history. It
could be 2 generations back in Ohio or 10 generations back in Italy, but wherever
it is you will be fascinated with what you find!

Montgomery Street was once known as South Street and commemorates the Montgomeries, the Earls of Eglinton and later Earls of Winton who owned Eaglesham Estate for seven centuries. - Wikipedia

Montgomery Moto: Watch Well and Tartan (lowland)

E is for . . .

Eyiafiord, Iceland

The last place name of ‘E’s is in Iceland. This is serendipitous as recently some of our family filled their days with wonder on a vacation to Iceland. There weren’t enough days on their vacation to travel to northern Iceland – so let’s take a look. (See blue area on map.)

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

A word about Wikipedia (it is free and needs our support – please donate
any time and especially when they are having a fund raiser!) – these
alphabetical reports to my family on the locations of our ancestors are best
described in words, maps, and pictures using this great resource. These alphabetical reports are a bit skeletal and need to be fleshed out by following the links provided. I am learning a lot about the lands of our forefather and mothers
and how their lives may have been shaped by these distinctive places.

Dacre, Cumberland, England (this small village is now in the Lake District National Park)

ancestry.com tree said she was born in Dyvet and I see her father is Lord
Dyvet. I could not find a mention of “Dyvet” online when looking for that location. Aha! I found it with the spelling “Dyfed” This is the place!

She is my 26th great grandmother and this is our first look at Wales. If you look at her
husband’s family you will see the early Tewdwr (or Tudor) that eventually
produces the kings and queens of England.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caernarfonshire
Here is a link to the county in Wales. This county wasn’t created until the
1200s but it shows a map and location. The place names would have been
there in the 900s. It says she was born in Llechwed Ucha, Dyfed,
Caernarvonshire, Wales. Each county is divided into ‘hundreds’ (or 100 acres).
Llechwed Ucha would be one of these Hundreds, Dyfed is the village (or castle with village).

This line goes back one more generation to her
father, Gwyn ap Rhytherich, Lord of Dyvet (Dyfed). In the Welch naming
tradition ‘ap Rhytherch’ would mean that he is the son of Rhytherch. His
daughter’s name is “Gwenllian verch” the word verch indicates 'daughter'. This line, like the
de Dacre family, comes down through our Quakers and to my father.

Looking in the
history of ‘Dyfed’ this is an interesting article of the ‘whoa variety’
of historical (or fictional) tales about Irish settling in this region of Wales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9isi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Dyfed
This article talks of Viking invasion at the time our ancestors were living
there. In the article you’ll see a lot of difficult names – Welch is a
very different language. The article mentions Cadell ap Rhodri. He is my 29th
GG. But, whereas, Gwyn and Gwenllian and Randolph are from my father’s
family. Cadell and his kin are from my mother’s family. It happens that their
families are in the same areas over and over – no wonder they were attracted to
each other and married.

Post-Roman Welsh petty
kingdoms. Dyfed is the promontory on the southwestern coast. The modern
Anglo-Welsh border is also shown.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

This
report on the letter “C” of place names in our family starts with a mistake.
Although mistakes that are found on ancestry.com are frustrating it
demonstrates why I consider the website and it’s wonderful tree a worksheet in
progress and not a family tree cast in stone. I started off with Cadbury – a
great name with a sweet connotation – all those wonderful Cadbury Easter eggs.
Then, as you will see, I find that someone has placed a wrong child in a family
and it is not our line at all! And, to top that off Cadbury eggs come from
London, not Cadbury!If you are an
Anglophile you will enjoy these Wikipedia articles of this area rich in
history. The article on Wynebald de Ballon (not out family) is a good example
of an early Norman Lord.It is part 2 of
this alphabetic report that holds a treasure – a truly great man. Be sure to
read part 2 about Ebergard “Evrard’ di Friuli I and the fabulous wine making area that was part of his domain.

Cadbury,
Somerset, England

(Yes,
those wonderful Cadbury eggs come from England and were founded by John
Cadbury, but they are headquartered in London.)

How
romantic – Cadbury Castle and the area seem to be Camelot! (Control – click on
links)

The
Normans (French) were conquerors of England in and around 1066 a great deal of
English land was granted by William the Conqueror to the Norman lords. Wynebald
de Ballon was one of those lords.He
took over North Cadbury Manor in Somerset between 1086 and 1092. It apparently
was his primary residence although he had multiple land holdings. The manor
then passed to his daughter Mabilia’s husband, Henry de Newmarch. Certainly in
a perfect world she would have inherited her father’s estates but by English
law she could not.

It
is with this alphabetic exercise and Mabilia of Cadbury that I’ve uncovered a
mistake in the family tree. Someone placed a cuckoo in her nest – a child that
was clearly not hers and he was our ancestor.I’ve had to disconnect our family from this Cadbury family – they are
not our great grandparents. We did have many who were Norman lords, so I will
keep Cadbury here as an example of the Normans who represent a great deal of
our family in France.

Above is a later version of the birthplace of the Wynebald
de Ballon and his brothers.This is
Donjon de Ballon, know as the Gateway to Maine 12 miles north of Le Mans, capital of the ancient
province of Maine. (The modern region of Pays-de-la-Loire in France. ) The
area was conquered by William, Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror) in 1066
before his invasion of England. The de Ballon brothers must have joined William
at this time but it is not known if they fought in the Battle of Hastings. [The
Battle of Hastings was a huge turning point for France and England, so check it
out on Wikipedia!]

Our
32nd (34, 35) Great Grandfather - Can you imagine – we have a
‘Saint’ as an ancestor. Well, we have several. This is one I’d like to travel
back in time to meet. He is also called ‘Margrave’ which most often meant
Military Governor.

This
is the link to follow to learn about the life of Eberhard and his connection to
Cysoing. This was one of the great men of his time and for the ages. If you read
only one article in this post – read the article on the Find A Grave
site. It is excellent.

Cysoing
– Chateau de l’Abbaye – photo by Musette ThierryOnce again a big thank you for the wonderful information from Wikipedia. Please support them financially as you can.Also, a special thank you to Find A Grave, now owned by ancestry.com, for the great entry for Ebergard “Evrard’ di I

Thursday, February 22, 2018

In my last blog post ‘Genealogy Place Names – 'A' I introduced a project for my family that looks at the places where our ancestor’s lived. Where they lived is important as it helped shape who they were. I started with Aachen, a German city that contains Charlemagne’s glorious cathedral. Aachen was the primary residence of Charlemagne, and we are Charlemagne’s children. By now he has millions of descendants and we stand among them – which means that area of hot springs and easy access to Belgium and The Netherlands is part of our bones. Each alphabetic report draws from the first and last place names of that letter. The second place for ‘A’ is Ayrshire, Scotland.

Now in this post we will look at the ‘B’s.These are random picks on my part and what came up was Babenberg Castle and the area that became Bamberg, Germany. Then at the end of the ‘B’s I found that city with the ever shifting name: Byzantium, Turkey – or, if you will, “Istanbul, not Constantinople”.A word about multiple generations.Heinrich Franconia, Margrave of Austrasia is listed as my 30th great grandfather. That’s ridiculously far back. He, no doubt, has millions (literally) of descendants.Are we special because this is our dear 30th great grandpapa? Well, we have to take all of this with a grain of salt. Our ancestor chart blooms exponentially to a point, but cousins marry and that pyramid shaped chart turns into a diamond. I get it, but I’m not very good at explaining it. Here is a link to an article that will keep us humble.https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/may/24/business-genetic-ancestry-charlemagne-adam-rutherford

From now through to the letter Z I’ll post the alphabetreports I’ve done for my family. I hope my blog readers will find these places interesting and will be inspired to study up on their ancestors’ homes.

Badenberg Castle

B is for Badenburg and Byzantium

Badenburg Castle, Holzkirchen, Bavaria, Germany

Heinrich ‘Henry’ Franconia, Margrave of Austrasiaabt 820 – 886 AD

30th Great Grandfather – (my mother's line)

Keep in mind that although this was the Badenburg dynasty the city and castle eventually became Bamberg, Germany

Henry was the ancestral lord of a castle, Babenberg, on theRiver Main, around which the later city ofBambergwas built. He enjoyed the favor of Charles the Fat and was his right-hand man in Germany during his reign. He led a surprise strike on a force ofVikingsprior to theSiege of Asselt, but it was unsuccessful. When, in 885, Charles summonedHugh, Duke of Alsace, andGodfrey, Duke of Frisia, to a court atLobith, it was Henry who arrested them and had Godfrey executed and Hugh imprisoned on Charles' orders.In 884, when Charles succeeded to the throne ofWest Francia, he sent Henry there to lead theMarch of Neustriaagainst theVikings. In 886, he was sent to aid thebesieged of Paris. He did not stay long but returned later that year with Charles. However, Henry died in a skirmish with theVikingswhile en route.As you can see this is just a teaser for Henry’s very eventful life. He died in the field and his death is described by his men. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_of_Franconia

Euphrosyne of Kiev 1130-1186(related to me; my husband, Jim; and my step-father – making us all cousins)

She is my 24th great grandmother - (my mother's line)

Byzantium is how it came up on the place report but that isn’t exactly accurate. By the time Euphrosyne came along it was called Constantinople, and of course it is now Istanbul.Whoa, this is exciting stuff – see below.

During her husband's reign Euphrosyne did not intervene in the politics of the kingdom, but after his death on May 31, 1162, her influence strengthened over their son, KingStephen III. The young king had to struggle against his unclesLadislausandStephento save his throne, and Euphrosyne took an active part in the struggles. She persuaded KingVladislaus II of Bohemiato give military assistance to her son against the invasion of the EmperorManuel I Komnenos.Euphrosyne's favorite son was the youngest, DukeGéza of Hungary. When KingStephen IIIdied on March 4, 1172, she was planning to ensure his succession against her older son,Béla, who had been living in the court of the EmperorManuel I Komnenos. However,Bélacame back, and he was crowned on January 13, 1173, although theArchbishopLukács ofEsztergomdenied his coronation. Shortly after, KingBéla IIIarrestedhis brother, which increased the tension between Euphrosyne and her son. DukeGézasoon managed to escape, probably with Euphrosyne's help, but in 1177 he was again arrested.

In 1186, Euphrosyne tried to release her younger son again, but she failed. KingBéla IIIordered the arrest of Euphrosyne and kept her confined in the fortress of Barancs (Serbian:Braničevo). Shortly after, Euphrosyne was set free, but she was obliged to leave the kingdom forConstantinople. From Constantinople she moved toJerusalemwhere she lived as anunin theconventof theHospitallers [That’s the Knights Templar, right?], and then in theBasilianmonasteryof Saint Sabbas.

I’m pretty stoked that this fierce woman is on our tree! This is the stuff of epic movies!